Archive for April, 2010
TRAVELING LIGHT
Mollie Kathleen Blackburn uses craft materials to produce small fine art pieces. Blackburn, who plans on graduating from the University of Kansas in May, created “The Honeymoon Years,” which combines three jewelry pieces and is inspired by her marriage.
Ceramic/Erotic : Linda Lighton
Installed at Rockhurst University’s Greenlease Gallery, Linda Lighton’s latest work is graceful, elegant, and manages to be soft, fragile and muscular all at the same time. A departure from her familiar colorful sea-creature and floral creations, these chandeliers change with ambient light and cast shadows of their own.
FIFTH FRIDAY APRIL 2010 CALENDAR DIGEST
Mark Newport is in town back at his alma mater for KCAI Current Perspectives lecture at 7 p.m. … men who knit! It’s opening night at Spencer Museum of Art for the student juried art show, as well as opening night at Penn Valley Community College’s student art show and sale. Next Thursday, UMKC’s end-of-semester show, and next Friday (First Friday) kicks off a weekend of KCAI student shows and more — and you know there’s plenty more in between (including Final Friday Wichita and the 2nd River City Biennale … and the 4th Great Rivers Biennale in St. Louis)!
SUSPENDING THE VIEWER
Tim Forcade strives for a dichotomy in his work between “photographic realism and ambiguous abstraction,” and with a background in painting — abandoned decades ago — he presents contemporary work that shows the culmination of an odyssey through technological processes. His latest exhibition and book, “Spectacular Uncertainties,” captures this vision.
AGGRESSIVELY ELOQUENT
Elana Herzog’s “Unwarped and Deweft,” a portion of which is still on display at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri, is an aggressive alternative to most fiber art because of its ambiguous execution and gutsy concept.
Drive-By Painting: Pam Peffer
For many of us, the tug of a beautiful bit of scenery is enough to halt us on our travels … or at least to hit the “pause” button on life while we pull over, get out and take it all in. For Pam Peffer, a brief look through the car window is enough to fuel her creative impulses.
TRUCKLOADS OF ART
The Belger Arts Center’s 10-year anniversary exhibition, “Beneath the Surface,” gives the viewer a rich taste of what is in the Belger Foundation’s collection (est. 1971), particularly through Modernist and contemporary works by Terry Allen, William Christenberry, Jasper Johns, Robert Stackhouse, Renée Stout, William T. Wiley, and Terry Winters.
Through a Scanner, Brightly : Bill Bowerman
As is always the case with unconventional art media and techniques, there’s a not-so-fine line between gimmick and art. Bowerman’s work comes down firmly on the latter side of that line. The scanner isn’t the star: his images are, and for the right reasons.
Prairie Whispers : Kimberly Casebeer
Casebeer’s oil paintings, part of the current group show at Leopold Gallery in Brookside, are marked by wide vistas, big skies and a contemplative feeling that evokes no speech beyond the murmur and whisper of wind in the prairie grass.
A Career Taking Shape: Kaden Myers
Myers’ work is both functional and eye-catching, showing a penchant for vases, stack jars (like the one pictured above) and lidded pieces. The offbeat pieces work just as well as the more symmetrical ones, and his earth-tone-intense color schemes match well with the organic themes and shapes of his pottery. The result is a comprehensive, cohesive — yet not clichéd — visual package.
Les Fleurs du Mort: Bridget Stewart
Bridget Stewart brings violent death and emergent life together in a macabre yet haunting dance … and the longer you look, the more apt you are to find yourself pulled into the procession.
Round and Ripe: Allan Chow
The lush curves of skin and petal add yet another dimension to the visual flavor profile: a layer of sensuality that ties in perfectly with the seductive aspects of food-sharing.
BORN TO KNOW A SUBURBAN U.S.A.
“Faraway Nearby • Addressing Suburbia” at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art presents nine angles on suburbanism through bodies of work made by artists in their early 30s to mid-40s — artists who have known life in America since an era when suburban lifestyle prevailed. A lively discourse takes form through a variety of mediums, and photography dominates the exhibition.
For the Beauty of the Earth: Alec Arnold
Fabric, sculpture are pottery the arts of myth, Nature and faith, tying into everything from creation to the span of life and the cycles of capital-L Life … so it’s not surprising that ceramic artist Alec Arnold would look to the wild when creating his works.
FOURTH FRIDAY APRIL 2010 CALENDAR DIGEST
Thursday evening: Current Perspectives lecture at the Kansas City Art Institute and new work by Matt Weaver at the KU Art & Design Gallery; Friday: Sense of Place in KC, Johnson County Canvas Art Crawl; Saturday: St. Louis, and Wichita.
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